Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Fountain in the Park @ Marietta Square c1900

It looks like the above surface base of the fountain are ornamental seahorses. And I think the same sea horses were there when I came along about 40 plus years later.

I also remember the little pond that the fountain fed. It had pennies in it and big gold fish/carp, some with white splotches, some mostly white with gold splotches.

Back in my pre-teenage years the fountain it had a iron black rail-picket fence around it. I suppose to keep people out of wish-pond penny collection. But the people could still throw things over the short fence, such as cigarette butts, gum, gum and candy wrappers, a loogie, and maybe even could piss through the rails, late at night.

In the picture the fountain’s water is ice. I remember several times in the deep of the winter and the pond would be frozen and the fish would be just there, still. I suppose when it thawed out they were ready for some more of what ever life dealt them, such as a cigar butt to fight over.

The fountain is still there, but has went through face lifts. The gold fish/carp was taken away. Sometimes on hot summer nights during concerts people will actually walk their toddlers in the water and I have seen teenagers dancing in it, sloshing water.

Instead of a iron rail fence now it is a multi-level short wall – tiered like a wedding cake, ideally for people to sit and enjoy the fountain, people, music, or whatever. I think the people of Cobb County have the late Harold Willingham to thank for the new fountain – don’t worry, he wasn’t out anything, he had all kinds of multi-leveled money deals with the county.

I remember when I did go through Glover Park to get to The Strand Theater, the place was infested with drunks. Then Cobb County was a dry county and drunks found a common ground in the park where they could drink their moonshine all day long out of brown paper bags and be among their own kind and no one would bother them. You would see men sitting on park benches, maybe a man passed out on a bench, maybe some woozy man asking for you for a nickel to buy something to eat or call his wife – in a way, it was an interesting experience just to see what you were going to see when you walked through the park.

One thing one might noticed now, but not then, was that all the drunks were white. Weren’t there any black drunks? you may ask and I would say, “I’m sure there were.”However, Blacks were not allowed to sit on park benches in the park. Where the park is was what used to be the grounds the Cobb County Courthouse was on. Sherman burned it down. Somehow, one of the elite families in Marietta, the Glover family gained possession of that land.

In time they donated the land to Marietta for a park for the people with some conditions and stipulations. One of the stipulations was that no black person could sit on a park bench in the park. – or if they were ever allowed to the park’s ownership would revert back to the Glover family. I think it was enforced, I don’t think I ever saw a black person sitting on a bench there. I didn’t know the contract then. Not so may years ago, maybe in the 1970s or 80s, after we were married, did a member of the Glover family put an amendment in the original contract to cancel that ugly stipulation out.

Seeing all those white drunks lying around passed out, or pissing and vomiting, I wonder why they were afraid a black might sit on a bench – afraid it might give the place a bad reputation?

Watering Holes

Speaking of a Common Watering Holes - they are a voyeur’s g-rated delight.

There is an article about Pete's Pond, in the 20th Anniversary volume of UNCLE JOHN’S BATHROOM READER there is an article about Pete’s Pond. Pete’s Pond was created by Pete Le Roux and is located in Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana,, in southern Africa.

Pete found animals in that area dying of dehydration and had made a big watering hole for all local animals to come and drink water. The water hole was a lifesaver.

Animals of all shapes and sizes came – some natural enemies of each other, and before long some it was a hot bed of interesting interactions between the animals. National Geographic installed a cam-camera, which runs all the time – so, anytime you want some down time of relaxation go to Pete's Pond and watch nature- free animals interact with each other.

However, a word of warning, sometimes you will be looking at a body of water with a tree in the background with maybe a bird making some kind of noise and that is about it – just in real life. No human is there to push two enemies together to get a good fight going or anything like that.

This brings me to what might be a good lucrative business enterprise:

We will call it THE WATERING HOLE NETWORK.

We will have cam-cameras installed at various types of bars and the drinkers at those bars will think they are just security cameras but they will really be cam-cameras. We will have them in cheap bars, expensive bars, motel lounges, dirt parking lots behind package stores – where the clientele are sometimes shoeless and shirtless, honkytonks, roadside houses, you name it…. Any kind of bar or drinking hole were the conversation is apt to get lively and maybe a good fight.

You will see true soap-opera style romances, day by day – maybe if we see a romance or a good fight budding, and they look at their watches and say it is time to go home we might have a representative jump in and give them a coupon or something, saying drinks on the house, everyday for the next week, if they come at a certain time – so, people will know when to tune in.

Of course, with all these channels it would probably be best to have viewing over the Internet only – and of course, you would have to give us your credit card number to bill you regularly – trust us.

We will make millions!!!! Now is the time to get in on the ground floor. Cash only, please.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Marietta Square, SE Corner, c1924

It says of the back:

“The Marietta Square seen from the southeast corner, c. 1924.”

My father would have been 13 years old then. By things he said, I think at that age he hung around the Square the Square a lot about the time period this picture was taken. I hung out a lot around the Square when I was 13 years old.

The picture looks as though it was probably taken through a second story window in Groover’s Hardware. It is too high to be street level and too low to be on top of the building – but even with the window you can only see part of across Atlanta Street at Allen’s Drug Store.

By the time I came along Allen Drugstore had changed to Reynolds and Ferrell Drug Store.

On Sundays, nothing but the drugstores were opened on the Square. I think there were five drug stores there: Atherton’s and Williams’ on West Park Square; Hodges and Jones’ on North Park Square; and Reynolds & Ferrell on South Park Square.

On Sundays, sometimes, we as a family for entertainment would drive to the Square, walk inside Reynolds & Ferrell Drug Store – I remember you had to walk up about 2 or 3 steps, and each in the family get an ice cream cone . Then we sat in the car outside and ate our ice cream and watched people. They did have little ice cream parlor table and chairs but that wasn’t our style.

We watched people come and go. They would walk into the drug store and leave eating their ice cream. That was our entertainment. A lot of people had on their fancy Sunday duds and some did not. Some men walked ahead of their wives and some walked behind their wives… kids were in tow. It was sort of like a common watering hole, or Pete’s Pond, for all walks – rich and poor and all races.

We were innocent voyeurs.

Also, take note of Glover Park across the street – it changes looks ever-so-often, just like everything thing else.

Midway Methodist Church Cemetery, Alpharetta, Ga.

(click any picture to make it larger & readable)

I haven’t posted a cemetery in a long time. I haven’t been trying to avoid it, but happenings, ideas, and newsy things kept popping up. And not to mention, to do a cemetery posting is more of an effort.... ahem!

This cemetery is just about halfway between Alpharetta and Cumming, Georgia, right in the middle of what used to be Milton County, until that county was abolished. Now it is very near the line of Forsyth and Fulton Counties, and I am not positive which county Midway is in.

As far as these pictures are concerned they are mostly but one on Anna’s mother’s mother’s side of the family. There are about five other Jones’ markers not shown.

Anna’s great grandparents, her mother’s father’s parents.

Anna’s grandfather, her mother's father.

Annie Lura Jones is Anna’s first cousin, twice removed. She lived only 31 years.

Don Keith Jones is Anna’s 2nd cousin, once removed. He lived only 22 years and apparently by his marker, loved the great outdoors.

Gertrude Jones Woods was Anna’s great aunt. She loved to quilt which she was very creative at.

Henry Dillard Jones was Anna 1st cousin, twice removed.

Anna’s grandmother, Myrtle Irene Jones Foster

Randall Hermon Jones is 2nd cousin, once removed. Randall must have played good music on the guitar.

Nosy Old Invisible Man Strikes Again

This weekend I had to quick stop in Krogers Grocery Store to pick up a few items.

As I was walking across the parking lot I noticed a preteen or early teenager walking with a young lady that was probably his mother. They apparently just left a ball game of some kind, probably Pony League Baseball – he had on a ball player’s uniform.

Suddenly she started dancing…. Walking backwards and with a rhythm putting one had out to the side, then the other hand. They walked a few more steps and she started doing something with plenty of bounce of rhythm, like a walking jitterbug. She wasn’t that old when the jitterbug was popular and her parents were probably too young to dance the twist – but she had the teenage dancing craze in her mind… and was doing a good job. I could have easily walked smack into a car or a light pole in the parking lot while watching her.

Inside, in the produce department I passed them again. They both were giggling and had a little private joke between them. Good for them. They had a good relationship.

If I was the loud boisterous type the mother and son would have probably behaved themselves.

3 Hunters

This picture was taken about 1944, give or take. My father is holding me and my sister is standing in front.

We are standing in our front yard in the Clay Home projects. In the background is a building that was then-recently built to train ex-GIs a trade when they returned from the war. The other is a 8 or 9 family dwelling Clay Homes building. On the left of that building and down a little hill is - or will be, the new greyhound Bus Station. It was built about this same time period.

It doesn't appear that my sister had a cast on her arm. That would be another clue of the time. While they were building the GI trade-training building she was on top of a roll of chain-link fence, it rolled, she fell, and broke her arm.

The doctor told my parents the arm was broken so badly she would never be able to use that arm and hand. But, Dr. Daddy had different ideas. He had her squeeze a rubber ball for years. You would never know now that she once had a lame arm. It was healed before she got to high school.

The Clay Homes and the GI training building are no longer there - they were bulldozed away a year ago. Presently, a bunch of big tall office buildings are being built there. The name of the area is named "Meeting park" - sounds like a place to buy drugs doesn't it?

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Bumper Sticker

Mangement - Can't Live Without 'Em...or?

From years working at the postal service and about half that time spent in Time and Attendance I could not help but noticing that when an employee is punished it is usually done by clipping the amount of his check. They intentionally messed with one livelihood and seemed to have enjoy it.

This is done usually by a suspension and sometimes the suspension time will be where it covers before and after a holiday, which again hits the employees in his or her means of earning an income. If one is in a non-pay- status before and after a holiday that employee will also be docked holiday pay.

However, when a member of management blunders there is no repercussions. I have seen many times the paperwork after a member of management mistreats an employee by suspending him, and the employee carried the ruling to a higher level and was awarded his pay that he lost while suspended, and in the letter from the arbitrator more or less scolded the manager and slapped his hands. But that is all. It didn’t cost the manager a thing.

I know of one manager, Bob, who has never had one of his punishing decisions concurred by an arbitrator. Twice, not once, but twice, the Postal Service, had to award the abused employee (female each time) a cash settlement up way up in the thousands of dollars for a sexual harassment case. At least one of those decisions Bob cannot even work in the same building as the person he harassed.

Yet, he has not been punished at all… and his hands were only slapped someplace in a long letter.

Unmanaged get punished, usually monetarily, and managers don’t – and they do make some very costly errors.

But on a lighter note, one time I turned in a suggestion. Shortly after I turned mine in – according to the dates – my immediate manager turned in the same suggestion, worded the same. He got a $50 cash award. I wrote the Awarding Committee with a copy of my suggestion and asked when was the other suggestion turned in (then I didn’t know it was my boss). It turned out there was “a mix-up” and when all was said and done I got the $50 cash award.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Howard's Taxi Service

At the concert on the Square last night, because of the crowd, and the loud music and Willow, we sat more away from the main area than we usually do.

We sat on the walk that leads from East Park Square to the fountain. About half way down the walk you have to either leap over a Liberty Bell or go around it. We sat about halfway between the Liberty Bell and the park perimeter sidewalk. Just a whiff distance from where the smokers gravitate too. It wasn’t too bad, I think the wind was blowing the nicotine smoke the other way.

I remembered Howard’s Taxi Service. We were sitting almost at what used to be Howard’s Taxi Service’s office.

Howard’s Taxi Service was a one man company. His office was a telephone mounted on a power pole on the edge of the park. He could pick as his chair a park bench or his taxi and be only a leaping distance from the ringing telephone.

If I remember correctly, Howard was tall and lanky – which worked out fine, because he phone was mounted high and out or reach of us short mischievous teenagers.

I don’t know what percent of his customers asked for local trips and what percent asked for long trips. I doubt if he kept up with it either.

I do know he was known for his long trips. A certain druggist on North Park Square had him make long trips quiet often. He had Howard go to the north Georgia mountains to pick up a load of moonshine for him and bring it back.

Memories Up In Smoke On the Day Planner

A couple of weeks ago I blogged that we had lunch at a French bakery/café on Glover Street in Marietta – which was my old preteen stomping grounds - which is now across the street from the Cobb County Board of Education.

I took a few pictures and made a note in my mind to go back and take some more.

Last Monday I was in the area and brought my camera to take some more pictures. At the same two houses with one fence around them, was a truck with a man behind the truck working – moving lumber, or whatever. I walked up and asked him what was going to happen to these two houses.

He told me next Saturday they are going to burn them – both of them. He told me the Marietta Fire Department is going to do the burning. That makes it official.

Today is that next Saturday. If you are reading this Saturday morning these two houses probably are burning – which were once homes. One of them, as I mentioned, I had a fight, right by the porch, and the other one, I ran in and out like it was my own house.

The last duty of both these two houses is to be one time tools for the Marietta Fire Department.

If the houses had burned without me taking these pictures I would have regretted letting the last opportunity to have something to kindle my memories of the area poof up in smoke.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Happy Days Are Here Again

The Glover Park last Friday evenings of the Month warm months has started. The evenings of slurping of fine wines and fine local beers are here again and leaving a pile of liter for the people working off their public service fines to pick up are here again.

Dick Hunter's Family

This is actually a type of the postcard. On the flip side, it says something like VOTE FOR DICK HUNTER FOR MAYOR OF MARIETTA.

The side we are looking at is my late uncle Dick Hunter and his big family. He and his wife Jeannette had twelve children.

I can not imagine living within a such a big family continuously minute by minute interacting with 13 immediate kin.

I think each of them keeps an active interest in each other and knows the latest of their mother and siblings. They did have a soft ball team that they all met and played or practiced often, well, as often as softball team would. I don’t know if they still have the team or not.

As I grew older with a family of my own I didn’t run into them as often as I did in my formative years, and when the three youngest boys sprouted into adulthood I had no idea of their faces, personality, height, or anything.

Once, after a walk downtown one Saturday morning Anna and I went to La Peep Restaurant on the Square for breakfast. There were a few people in the waiting area. The hostess said it would not be a long wait, so we put out names in.

We chatted with a young couple while waiting. We chatted about little nothings like the weather and so on. I learned long ago not to talk politics or religion is people you don’t know.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Savannah - Clarys Cafe postcard

You may recognize the figure in the stained-glass which is on a window at Clary’s Café in Savannah. It is of course the lady of justice holding equal weighted pans – or wait! Maybe she is holding two equal sized birth baths.

I believe she, as a statue, was out in Boneventure Cemetery at the Johnny Mercer family plot when she was mentioned in the book. But souvenir collectors kept stealing her.

She is just about a icon for the book and movie “The Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil” And so is Clary’s Café – in the book and movie, that is where all the kooks and/or eccentric people gathered to have breakfast every morning. It is sort of a watering hole for nuts.

The Harvey Kurtzman One Man Show

Harvey Kurtzman was the editor of MAD when it started as a comic book and remained editor for about 28 issues. I say “about” because there is not a clear cut off issue that was his last. Articles he wrote and supervised the art were still coming out in MAD months after he left.

MAD issue number 23 was the last comic book issue. They promoted themselves to a magazine status. MAD number 24 was their first magazine issue.

In the comic book phase of MAD Harvey Kurtzman wrote every story and every word.* He was very articulate and wanted his stories to be exactly as he envisioned them as he wrote them. He mostly had four artists with four distinct different styles, techniques and talent: Will Elder, Jack Davis, Wally Wood, and John Severin. There were a few more artists that came for one issue and left.

Harvey would draw a rough “thumbnail” outline, panel by panel and would and would meet with the artist he had in mine to do the story in front of him. He would go over each panel with the artist and explain just how he was to illustrate it and he did not want to deviate from his plan at all. I think they all day from time to time – after all, they were MAD artists.

It has been said from various sources that Harvey Kurtzman, while explaining to the proposed artist just how he wanted the panel to go, he would pantomime the body language of the character he was trying to portrayed. If he wanted one to be dancing, kicking their heels high, then that is what Harvey did – if he wanted on bent over to the floor with a magnifying glass, then he would do that.

In other words, he put on a man-man-show for an audience of one. Boy, would I have loved to have been a fly on the way (only temporarily) to watch that.

Here are examples that Kurtzman probably put on a good show acting out for the benefit of one person, that had to be funny, if I was the artist in the room I am not sure I could have kept a straight face.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

New Orleans Preservation Hall postcard

How could I forget abut Preservation Hall. It was one of my best-like places there. I/we visited every trip I/we went.

The Preservation Hall Band is made up of volunteers who are devoted keeping their type of music alive. They are mostly elderly, but occasionally you will see a young jazz/Dixieland enthusiast with his horn playing with them.

The first time I went there in January 1965 the audience sat in church-like pews and a collection plate was passed. I am not sure if that was the case on the next visit or not. But, by the third visit, the management had learned of their demand – a full house every night, to have you pay a donation at the door – I’m pretty sure.

They just play good improvised music, that is all. No showy stuff, just stuff like “Want You Come Home Bill Bailey” , “Hold That Tiger”, and whatever else they want to play.

I think we bought cassette tapes there on our last visit, and maybe later Rocky bought some Preservation Hall CDs, or maybe I did – I forgot… but now we have a collections and just the other day on my walk I loaded my MP3 player with a Preservation Hall Band album and Willow and I strutted to their beat up and down the streets of our neighborhood.

Next to Preservation Hall is the famous watering hole, Pat O’Brien’s, and they serve the famous Hurricane and Cyclone drinks in their special souvenir tumbler shaped glasses.

Across the street from Pat O’Brien’s and Preservation Hall is an ice cream shop. After our Preservation Hall time we dropped in the ice cream shop and ordered, well, I guess ice cream.

They had little round tables that looked like they belong in an ice cream parlor – well? While we were enjoying our ice cream, the black clerk, with a white cap on looked like he was feeling good, dancing and bumping to the music on the radio. Then, I think they played something like YMCA and he really started rocking. He started dancing around and I was his focal point. He was pantomiming the words and he would dance around me and point at me to emphasize the words in the song… wild!s And terribly embarrassing for me…. With a red face I took his jesting and dancing in good humor. Anna, Adam, and Rocky got a big kick out of it.

Recycled Flicks

From watching movies on Blockbuster’s version of Netflicks here are the latest movies we watched (psst! it seems there was another one, but I can’t remember what it was):

GONE BABY GONE. The movie was based on the Dennis Lehane novel about two Boston area detectives. It was adopted and the screenplay was partly written by Ben Affleck and also directed it. And, it starred his kid brother Casey Affleck along with Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman. It mostly takes place in the old run-down neighborhoods in Boston, - if you saw the movie MYSTIC RIVER, you know what I mean.

Everybody but Morgan Freeman had a thick Boston accent so a lot of the dialog got by us. It is about a kidnapping of a little girl from a white-trashy girl. Near the end, the movie has a couple of unexpected twists. They were not new twists, there are other movies with the same twists.

Like I said, a lot of the dialog got by me because of the Boston accents, but a couple of expressions I could understand, I guess because the sentences or expressions were constantly repeated throughout the movie: “Fuck you!”. “Up your ass!”, and “Kill my ass!”… some statements are just too universal to be limited to any one region.

Casey Affleck’s character had to face the age-old dilemma should he do what in the long run is right or go by what is the law.

I thought Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan did excellent acting in it. Morgan Freeman did too – but he wasn’t in it that much – he just showed up on pay days.

LIONS FOR LAMBS. The Lions are the strong fighting men who give their life without questioning their leaders their motives for getting the in the mess they are in, and the Lambs are the leaders – thinking they are too good to fight and has the Lions do the fighting for them.

It takes place during the recent conflict in Afghanistan. The movie was directed by Robert Redford. I got the idea that at the same time there are three conversations going on at the same moment in time. A college professor with a rebellious but intelligent student in the prof’s office; a reporter and a hawk U.S. Senator; and two young U.S. soldiers fighting for their lives on a snow covered mountain surrounded by the enemy.

The professor (Robert Redford) is trying to reason with a student to do something that will make a difference – he sensed the kid is anti-establishment anyway, and intelligent – he would be a great person to get some anti-war things going.

On Capital Hill there is a little roster of a man, a U.S. Senator, proud and a braggart being an expert politician , with presidential ambitions, and in a way orchestrating the war. He is granting a reporter (Meryl Streep) the joy of interviewing him and is giving her an exclusive. In the interview she asks him why wasn’t he over their fighting and you can tell he was insulted, he let her know he was the first in his class at West Point and said something to the effect that he had made great accomplishments and why "hold that against him" - which I interpreted that to say that he was saying that only low achievers end up fighting and facing the enemy - which just isn't true.

And, in the middle of the night on a snow cap mountain in Afghanistan are fighting – because that is how you defend your country, but were they just pawns?

Good movie. It was depressingly good.

WALK HARD, THE DEWEY COX STORY. It starred John C. Reilly who was sort of a reincarnate of Elvis, The Beatles, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan and others…. He did the same things they did, but was part of the each their type of music and movements. It was very funny. I cracked up laughing several times, which says a lot. Well actually instead of saying a lot it cackles a lot.

It is kind of a musical Forrest Gump. It was funny and great… it was one of those movies where the creators knew no limits of their creative licenses. And it had a good beat throughout it.